Former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s lobbying work for the Turkish government involved payments to several former FBI officials and a retired admiral who served in a top intelligence role for the joint chiefs of staff.

Flynn disclosed that information to the Justice Department earlier this week when registering as a foreign agent for the Turkish government.

It is unclear what services Flynn, a retired lieutenant general, sought from the retired intelligence officials. But the firm’s $530,000 lobbying contract with its client, a Turkey-connected shell company called Inovo BV, centered on Fethullah Gulen, a cleric living in exile from Turkey in Pennsylvania.

Flynn Intel’s filing, made under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, is notable for its detail and timing. Flynn was fired from the Trump White House last month in a row over phone calls he had with Russia’s ambassador in December.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wants the U.S. government to extradite Gulen, who he blames for terrorist attacks in his country and a failed coup attempt in July.

Flynn Intel’s foreign agent disclosure reports show that it waged a public relations and congressional outreach campaign as part of its work for Inovo BV, which is owned and operated by Ekim Alptekin, the head of the Turkey-U.S. Business Council (TAIK) with ties to the Turkish government.

Fethullah Gulen at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania September 26, 2013. REUTERS

Alptekin also coordinated a meeting between Flynn and two high-ranking Turkish government officials in New York City on Sept. 19. On that same day, Flynn, Trump, and then-Sen. Jeff Sessions met with Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

The White House said Thursday that Trump was not aware of Flynn’s lobbying work prior to the election.

Flynn Intel disclosed very little about the lobbying arrangement in filings with the U.S. Senate in September. Nor was the information disclosed in December, when Flynn Intel terminated the relationship with Inovo after Flynn was chosen as Trump’s national security adviser.

That final filing listed that Flynn Intel received less than $5,000 for its work for Inovo BV, far less than the $530,000 reported this week.

Part of Flynn Intel’s work involved conducting and gathering research on Gulen, an ally-turned-enemy of Erdogan’s.

The firm, which was based in Alexandria, Va., paid $28,000 to Brian McCauley, the former deputy assistant director for international operations at the FBI. Another $7,500 was paid to retired Rear Admiral Paul Becker for consulting work.

Flynn Intel also paid $20,000 to Operational Behavioral Services, a Virginia-based company that lists retired FBI agents Thomas Neer and Gina Orton as executives. Neer was assigned to the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, and Orton was a psychiatrist at the bureau.

White Canvas Group, an open source research firm, received $15,000 from Flynn Intel.

None of the former government officials or firms responded to emails and phone calls placed directly or through intermediaries. Flynn’s lawyer forwarded questions to a press relations specialist. He was unable to answer questions about the details of Flynn’s or the ex-officials’ work.

McCauley has several connections to Flynn. The pair are personal friends, according to the book “Twilight Warriors,” published last year. They also served on the board of directors for Brainwave Science, a company that claims to have developed a “ground-breaking” brain fingerprinting technology that gauges truthfulness during interrogation.

McCauley made national news in the aftermath of the Clinton email investigation and during the presidential campaign, while he was contracted with Flynn Intel Group.

Witnesses interviewed by the FBI in the case alleged that McCauley and now-retired State Department official Patrick Kennedy discussed a quid pro quo arrangement involving classification markings on a Clinton email. McCauley acknowledged that he suggested a quid pro quo with Kennedy but quickly scuttled the idea when he learned that the email involved “Secret” information related to the Sept. 11, 2012 Benghazi attacks.

As part of the lobbying contract, Flynn Intel’s researchers presented information they had on Gulen to House Homeland Security Committee staffers during a meeting in October, the new disclosures show.

It is unclear if McCauley or any of Flynn’s other subcontractors were part of that presentation.

A person familiar with the meetings was unable to recall any names of meeting participants other than that of Bijan Kian, a Flynn Intel partner and former board member of the Export-Import Bank.

TheDC’s source said that Kian used a pitch for a defense technology product as cover to discuss the Gulen extradition issue with the House committee.

After discussing the technology product, the source said that Kian introduced several men who said they had research on Gulen and network of charter schools his followers operate in the U.S.

Other lobbyists for the Turkish government have harped on the charter school network, claiming that Gulenists flout the H-1B system to hire teachers.

The House staffers in the meeting were turned off by Flynn Intel’s bait-and-switch, TheDC’s source said. They felt it was surreptitious, as well as pointless, given that the Homeland Security Committee would have no input on Gulen’s extradition. The federal court system would determine whether Gulen should be extradited. The Turkish government has presented evidence to the Justice Department that they say shows he is behind the July coup attempt.

Kian did not respond to an emailed request for comment on the meeting.

Flynn himself is not answering questions about the lobbying work, his research on Gulen, or the retired officials’ duties. His PR consultant told TheDC that he is not conducting interviews.

TheDC was able to reach Robert Kelley, the Flynn Intel lobbyist listed on the company’s lobbying disclosures with the Senate. He answered TheDC’s phone call but did not respond to after an initial greeting.

How Putin Benefits from Trump's Foreign PolicyWar on the RocksLet's start with Trump's Europe policy, which Mead does not mention. Putin's objective in Europe is to weaken or dismantle the Western order and replace it with a spheres of influence system in which Russia enjoys a much greater say over Eastern Europe.

Israel’s prime minister was in Moscow Thursday to talk with Russia’s president about the Syrian crisis, the latest sign of Russia’s growing influence in the Middle East as well as Israel’s concerns over Moscow’s regional allies. Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin made no joint statement following the talks, but Netanyahu later issued a statement indicating he had “made it clear” to Putin that Israel wants to prevent any Syrian settlement from leaving “Iran and its proxies with a military presence” in Syria. Russia has come to assume a larger role in Israel’s foreign policy calculations since the Kremlin’s intervention in the Syrian conflict in September 2015. While Putin at the time justified Russia’s actions as taking the fight to global terrorists and the Islamic State, Western critics argue the intervention was also aimed at salvaging the government of besieged Moscow’s ally, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. Russia's wider role It’s that later mission that many in the West, begrudgingly, agree has succeeded -- for now. Russia’s role in helping Assad’s forces take the rebel city of Aleppo in December 2016, in particular, signaled a key turning point in the war. Independent human rights groups say the victory was accomplished with a ruthless Russian-Syrian air campaign targeting civilians. Russia denies those charges. Israel has largely stayed out of the Syrian conflict, save for working with Russia to avoid potential clashes with Israel’s military operations along the Syrian border. Israel eyes Iran Yet it is Russia’s wider military alliance in Syria, alongside traditional Israeli foes Iran and Hezbollah, that is causing alarm among Israeli officials. In particular, Israel is nervous about the prospect of Iranian military forces gaining a permanent foothold in the Israeli-held border region of the Golan Heights. “Russia has made a very important contribution,” said Netanyahu in a statement acknowledging Russia’s efforts against Islamic State targets in Syria. He added that he told the Russian leader “naturally, we do not want this terrorism to be replaced by the radical Shiite Islamic terrorism led by Iran.” Russian influence Russian experts on the Middle East suggested Putin’s influence on Iran was questionable, arguing the countries’ alliance was based more on circumstance than tradition. “Russia and Iran ... they’re both dependent on one another,” said Middle East specialist Karina Gevorkyan in an interview with VOA. In addition to their support of the Assad regime, she points to economic and Russian weapons sales to Iran as fueling the current partnership. But it’s a relationship, Gevorkyan said, built on pragmatism above all else. “Can Putin promise Netanyahu to raise the issue with the Iranians? Yes, he can. And the Iranians might well agree, if they see it in their interests,” she said. Gevorkyan adds that Iran is pursuing its long-term influence in the region, with Israel cast in the role of bogeyman in case plans go astray. The Russian-Israeli meeting came one day before a visit to Moscow by another Middle East powerbroker and U.S.-NATO ally, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. That relationship, too, has seen its ups and downs surrounding the Syrian war. Late last year, Russia’s ambassador to Turkey was gunned down in public by a Turkish assassin. Before being shot by police, the gunman said he was avenging Russia’s role in the Aleppo siege. The murder underscored the complexity of Moscow’s current political pivot from its role as backer of the Syrian regime to the primary mediator in the Syrian conflict. Talks in Kazakhstan In February, Moscow sponsored talks between Damascus and the Syrian opposition in neighboring Astana, Kazakhstan. While results have thus far proved minimal, few doubt Russia is eager to show it can deliver what Western powers could not: a resolution to the vexing six-year conflict. The next phase of talks in Astana is to resume next week. Yet largely missing from the equation has been Washington. The Obama administration had what critics saw as an on-again, off-again engagement on the Syrian issue. Efforts by then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to make headway with Russia on the Syrian issue in the final year of the Obama presidency failed to produce results. By contrast, U.S. President Donald Trump has indicated his desire to recruit Moscow in a grand coalition against Islamic State, a position welcomed broadly in the Kremlin. Yet the American president has pulled back on cooperating with Russia amid multiple investigations into Russian interference in the American election, allegedly on Trump’s behalf. In Moscow, the scandal has fed a sense that, whatever Trump’s wishes, the American leader may prove unable to pursue an alliance he claims to want in the interests of his own political survival.

How Putin's and Trump's economic messages are similarWest Virginia Public BroadcastingHe's the author of the book "Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia" and is a visiting senior fellow at the Institute of Global Affairs at the London School of Economics. He talked with Marketplace host Kai ...and more »

10 March 1928: To Stalin belongs the credit and the blame both for making the “opposition” and for destroying it

[Mr. Arthur Ransome has now returned from his investigations in Russia and we print below the first of a series of articles in which he will record his conclusions.]

There is nothing in the outward appearance of Moscow to suggest that the revolution has just passed through a serious crisis. An observer looking for “symptoms” would notice on the one hand that it was much more dangerous to cross the streets, because of the great increase in motor traffic, particularly “taxis” and the big Leyland motor-buses, and on the other hand the reappearance of queues outside the shops that sell milk, butter, and soap. When he had to cross the street he would think, perhaps rather ungratefully, of increased business and prosperity. When he noticed a row of people waiting to buy butter he would be reminded of difficulties that he had at one time thought the revolution had outlived. Not until he had been some time in the city would he begin to realise that it is impossible to discuss either increased prosperity or the reappearance of butter queues without reference to the long struggle which has just ended with the complete discomfiture of all the better-known leaders of the early period of the revolution.

Park Geun-hye, the recently ousted president of South Korea, was the country’s first female head of state. Park was a longstanding member of the nation’s political community. She grew up in the Blue House, the presidential mansion, as the daughter of late dictator Park Chung-hee, who ruled from 1961 to 1979. Park served as the nation’s first lady for five years after her mother, a popular first lady, was shot to death by a North Korean agent. The assassin was aiming for the president. Park carried out first lady political duties until her father was assassinated by his own spy chief in 1979. Park’s father was widely accused of suppressing dissent and abusing human rights. Park Geun-hye has said she regrets those aspects of her father’s iron-fisted rule. Before becoming president, Park served five terms as a lawmaker and had an unsuccessful run for president in the campaign before her triumphant turn. Influence-peddling scandal The stunning and sudden collapse of Park’s presidency was caused by allegations that a multimillion dollar influence-peddling scandal was being run out of the Blue House. In December, 234 members of the 300-seat National Assembly voted to impeach Park. The president’s image as a strong and incorruptible leader crumbled under allegations her longtime friend, Choi Soon-sil, secretly exploited her close relationship with Park to force Korean conglomerates to donate some $65 million to two dubious foundations, while at the same time funneling some of the funds and lucrative side contracts to companies owned by herself and her friends. Park maintained her innocence Park met with her Cabinet after the impeachment vote and refused to resign. However, she said she would abide by the outcome of the impeachment vote and plead her case before the Constitutional Court. She has maintained the actions she took were in the national interest and has insisted she never personally benefited during her years of public service. She offered three public apologies for not being aware that some of her close associates may have been involved in some wrongdoing.

U.S. employers are thought to have hired at a brisk pace in February, and the unemployment rate is expected to stay low, a result that would provide further evidence of a consistently solid job market. Economists have forecast a job gain of 186,000 and a decline of one-tenth of a percentage point in unemployment to 4.7 percent, according to data provider FactSet. With employers competing to hire a dwindling supply of applicants and higher minimum wages taking effect in some states, average pay is also thought to have risen. The Labor Department will release the February jobs report at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. If the economists’ forecasts prove roughly correct, the Federal Reserve will almost surely feel confident enough to resume raising interest rates when it meets next week. It would mark the Fed’s third rate hike in 15 months, a reflection of how far the economy has come since the Great Recession ended nearly eight years ago. Jobs report for Trump Friday’s report will also be the first to cover a full month under President Donald Trump. Trump has tweeted cheerfully about a survey of private-sector hiring released earlier this week that suggested a robust job gain in February. That survey, by payroll provider ADP, concluded that private employers added 298,000 jobs in February, the biggest monthly gain in three years. Construction companies hired the most workers in 11 years and manufacturers the most in five, ADP found. The surge in construction jobs likely reflected unseasonably warm February weather, particularly in the North, which kept job sites open that would otherwise have been shut down by winter weather. If warm weather boosted the pace of construction hiring in Friday’s government report, other weather-sensitive industries, like retail and restaurants, will likely also show sharp job gains. Jobs market healthy Apart from any effects of unusual weather, much evidence suggests that the U.S. job market is fundamentally healthy or nearly so. The number of people seeking first-time unemployment benefits, a rough proxy for the pace of layoffs, reached a 44-year low two weeks ago. And in January, employers added a vigorous 227,000 jobs, according to the government’s figures, higher than last year’s monthly average of 187,000. Business and consumer confidence has soared since the presidential election, with many business executives saying they expect faster economic growth to result from Trump’s promised tax cuts, deregulation and infrastructure spending. The U.S. economy is also benefiting from steadier economies overseas. Growth is picking up or stabilizing in most European countries as well as in China and Japan. The 19-nation alliance that uses the euro currency expanded 1.7 percent in 2016, an improvement from years of recession and anemic growth. Germany’s unemployment rate has fallen to 3.9 percent, although in crisis-stricken Greece, unemployment remains a painful 23 percent. Wages rising In the United States, employers have been hiring solidly for so long that in some industries, they’re being compelled to raise pay. Hourly wages for the typical worker rose 3.1 percent in 2016, according to a report Thursday by the Economic Policy Institute. That’s much higher than the 0.3 percent average annual pay gain, adjusted for inflation, since 2007, the EPI said. Minimum wage increases last year in 17 states and Washington, D.C., helped raise pay among the lowest-paid workers, the EPI found. Pay increases for the poorest 10 percent of workers were more than twice as high in states where the minimum wage rose as in states where it did not. U.S. builders are breaking ground on more homes, and factory production has recovered from an 18-month slump, fueling growth and hiring. In February, manufacturing expanded at the fastest pace in more than two years, according to a trade group. Businesses have stepped up their purchases of industrial equipment, steel and other metals, and computers. And in January, Americans bought homes at the fastest pace in a decade despite higher mortgage rates. That demand has spurred a 10.5 percent increase in home construction in the past 12 months.

A helicopter crashed on a highway in the outskirts of Istanbul on Friday, after apparently hitting a television tower in dense fog, reports said. At least five people were killed, the governor said. The helicopter, belonging to the Eczacibasi group of companies, was carrying seven people on board: the company's four Russian guests, a Turkish official and two pilots. Gov. Vasip Sahin said the helicopter crashed in Istanbul's Buyukcekmece district after taking off from Itsanbul's Ataturk Airport, adding that the cause of the crash is under investigation. Eyewitness Fikret Karatekin, a taxi driver, told CNN-Turk television by telephone that the helicopter slammed into the tower before crashing on the highway. “It hit the tower and crashed by spinning,” he said, adding that the highway had been closed down. The helicopter broke into pieces that were scattered on the highway as well as a green area on the side of the road. Video footage from the site showed thick black smoke rising from the highway.

Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Moscow on March 10 to discuss the ongoing conflict in Syria. The two countries have coordinated military action, sponsored talks between Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and the opposition, and brokered a cease-fire in December. (AP)

Letter: We must investigate foreign influence in US electionsThe RepublicI saw the story in late October about a Trump-owned server communicating with (apparently) a Russian bank. It was presented as a matter of cybersecurity watchdogs looking for malware and other threats to the election. Looking back, one can see a ...

Russian hackers use Dutch polls as practiceDeutsche WelleRussian hackers use Dutch polls as practice. The Dutch government, like its German and French counterparts, fears that Russia is trying to influence the upcoming election through hacking schemes and by spreading fake news. Thessa Lageman reports.

The Man Who Wants to Unmake the WestPOLITICO Magazine“They have a deep well of psychological reliance on the American-led order,” says Jeremy Shapiro, a Hillary Clinton State Department official now at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London. Now they're bracing for an American assault on ...and more »

What is the real story of Donald Trump and Russia? The answer is still unclear, and Democrats in Congress want to get to the bottom of it with an investigation. But there’s no doubt that a spider web of connections—some public, some private, some clear, some murky—exists between Trump, his associates and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

These charts illustrate dozens of those links, including meetings between Russian officials and members of Trump’s campaign and administration; his daughter’s ties to Putin’s friends; Trump’s 2013 visit to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant; and his short-lived mixed martial arts venture with one of Putin’s favorite athletes. The solid lines mark established facts, while dotted ones represent speculative or unproven connections.

Story Continued Below

There’s nothing inherently damning about most of the ties illustrated below. But they do reveal the vast and mysteriously complex web behind a story that has vexed Trump’s young presidency from its start—and is certain to shake the White House for months to come.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin for talks on issues including the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, economic and energy ties, and efforts to combat terrorism.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Formally removed from office by a historic Constitutional Court ruling Friday, Park Geun-hye has lost her presidential immunity from prosecution over a corruption scandal that has sent dozens of high-profile figures to face criminal trials....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- For months, President Donald Trump and his advisers have tried to distance themselves from Carter Page, a little-known investment banker who briefly served as a foreign policy adviser on the Republican&apos;s presidential campaign....